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Black, white, red, blue, green, and yellow: what do these colours symbolize across the cultures of the world, and how are they expressed in art? A new exhibition in Paris reveals their meanings
What is colour? It’s striking how a force so pervasive in our lives can remain so enigmatic and elusive. Sciences can offer some explanations, talking about wavelengths, refractive indices, and electromagnetic vibrations... yet, as Robert Musil suggested in The Man Without Qualities, can these dry scientific terms truly bring us closer to a more authentic understanding of reality? Nothing has meaning without colour, which, in every reflection, contrast, nuance, and brushstroke, tells us stories and stirs emotions. Our eyes detect colour—or at least some of it—but it’s our brains that interpret and process it, transforming it into something imaginative and aesthetic. Here, colour narrates, as in films; attracts, as in advertising; enhances, as in cosmetics; hides, as in camouflage; hierarchizes, as in cartographies … and finally, it is admired, as in nature, in galleries, and in works of art … And it pleases, depending on our personal experiences, those which, in their richness and diversity, define us as individuals and as bearers of unique stories … evoking memories, shaping experiences, influencing choices, and stirring emotions …
It is therefore true that colours do not merely serve a purely visual and sensory function, but can also play a moral, sensitive, and aesthetic role. Thus, colour perceptions occur not only within our eye, but also on a mental, imaginative level, across all cultures on our planet. It is precisely by examining this link between the materiality of colour and the symbolism of its meaning that the new exhibition at the Hôtel de la Marine in Paris, La couleur parle toutes les langues, curated by Hélène de Givry and open until October 5, 2025, takes shape. Drawing from a selection of works in the Al Thani collection, one of the most prestigious private collections in the world, the exhibition in fact brings together eighty pieces from the most disparate artistic cultures to explore the symbolism of colour across the cultures of our planet.
Figure 1 Exhibition poster.
In the exhibition, a path then unfolds through six fundamental colours: black, white, red, yellow, green, and blue. What stories and emotions will this palette evoke in us?
Figure 2 View of the exhibition Colour Speaks all Languages. Selected works from The Al Thani Collection © The Al Thani Collection 2024. All rights reserved. Photograph by Marc Domage.
To greet the visitor, there is the work of Francisco Goya, a dark presence in the Age of Enlightenment. By opposing the solemn aesthetic ideals of neoclassicism, he gave life to the ghosts and anxieties of a humanity where "the sleep of reason produces monsters," as seen in the print Disparate volante, where two mysterious figures soar through a night filled with enigma. Despite this ambiguous symbolism, black—particularly in artistic cultures outside Europe—also holds positive meanings. In Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, it was linked to fertility, symbolizing the silt deposited by rivers that ensured the agricultural survival of these ancient civilizations. Black, therefore, shifted from representing death to symbolizing life, such as in Olmec culture, where it was associated with rain deities, bearers of regeneration...
Figure 3 Deity. Mexico, Olmec, 900-600 BC. Serpentine. H. 12.7 cm. The Al Thani Collection, ATC1142.2. © The Al Thani Collection, 2023. All rights reserved. Photography by Studio Hughes Dubois.
Finally, black conceals the refined paradox of dark materials like obsidian, coral, and lacquer, which, in their polished surfaces, reverberate more light and sparkle with life. Thus, black becomes a form of chromatic poetry, evoking the contemplation of the moon and stars, as in a Japanese lacquer box with pearl inlays, or of the abyss’s depths, as in the 19th-century coral table ornament, both on display in the exhibition.
Figure 4 View of the exhibition Colour Speaks all Languages. Selected works from The Al Thani Collection © The Al Thani Collection 2024. All rights reserved. Photograph by Marc Domage.
Black, despite its umbral and sidereal symbolism, is nevertheless not a colour in the physical sense of the term, as it rather denotes its absence. The same applies to white, which results from the combination of all the colours of visible light: yet it equally holds deep meanings in all civilisations on our planet. In Western culture, white is a symbol of goodness, purity and balance, as in ancient classical statues. A notable example is the statue of the Roman personification of Hope, Spes, made from Pentelic marble. Once painted, it was ambiguously discovered during the neoclassical era without its original pigments, leading to its interpretation as a symbol of the eternal spring of ancient civilizations...
Figure 5 The Hope Isis, Athens, Roman, 50 BC-50 AD, Pentelic marble, 60.9 x 27 x 20 cm, The Al Thani Collection, ATC383, © The Al Thani Collection, 2018, All rights reserved, Photograph by Todd White Art.
White also embodies purity, spirituality, and light, often interpreted as a manifestation of the divine, as seen in the objects displayed in the second showcase. Among these is an amphoriskos from the Roman-Imperial period, crafted from rock crystal, a crystalline quartz that Pliny the Elder, in his Naturalis Historia, associates with spiritual and medicinal properties...
Figure 6 Amphoriskos, Roman, 1-300 AD, Rock crystal, bone, H. 9.2 cm, The Al Thani Collection, ATC717b, © The Al Thani Collection, 2018, All rights reserved, Photography by Todd White Art Photography.
A symbol of piety in both the West and Islam, white, however, also represents mourning in many Asian cultures, including China and Japan. Dominating the space is in fact the warrior skeleton from Takiyasha the Witch, the masterpiece by Utagawa Kuniyoshi...
Figure 7 Triptych of Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre, c. 1844, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861), V&A Museum.
Figure 8 View of the exhibition Colour Speaks all Languages. Selected works from The Al Thani Collection © The Al Thani Collection 2024. All rights reserved. Photograph by Marc Domage.
The next showcase turns to red, a fiery, sanguine colour symbolizing energy, vitality, and strength. Due to these associations, red became the colour of power and authority: materials like porphyry and purple, rare and costly, were in fact linked to imperial dignity. Among the items on display are a red jasper head of Hatshepsut, the Egyptian queen of the New Empire, and a jadeite ceremonial sceptre belonging to Emperor Qianlong, dating from the Neolithic period.
Figure 9 View of the exhibition Colour Speaks all Languages. Selected works from The Al Thani Collection © The Al Thani Collection 2024. All rights reserved. Photograph by Marc Domage
Red, a symbol of power, also serves an apotropaic function, particularly in Japan, where it is believed to protect against evil spirits. Red is the colour of torii gates, and red is also present in the kakemono of Shogi, on display in the exhibition...
Figure 10 View of the exhibition Colour Speaks all Languages. Selected works from The Al Thani Collection © The Al Thani Collection 2024. All rights reserved. Photograph by Marc Domage
It is impossible not to emphasize that red is also the colour of the heart, of seduction (as seen in the scarlet cloak of Jigoku Dayū in the Meiji-era engraving of the same name), of burning passions (such as those symbolized by the garnets in the necklace from the time of Alexander the Great, displayed in the showcase) and, finally, of voluptuous pleasures, exemplified by the red glass vessel from Mughal India, used to contain the perfumed water for cooling the tobacco in imperial hookahs...
Figure 11 Hookah base, India, Mughal, 1700-1750, Glass, gold, 14 x 17 cm, The Al Thani Collection, ATC925, © The Al Thani Collection, 2017, All rights reserved, Photograph by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.
Like red, another colour tied with power dynamics is yellow, which in fact in China was reserved exclusively for the Sovereigns, the Sons of Heaven. In many Asian cultures, not coincidentally, yellow symbolizes balance, wisdom, and harmony, as seen in the precious 'Peach' box from the Qing dynasty, which features aquatic motifs signifying happiness and longevity...
Figure 12 ‘Peach’ Box, China, Qing Dynasty, reign of Qianlong (1735-1796). Gold, garnet. H. 11.7 cm. The Al Thani Collection, ATC1053. © The Al Thani Collection, 2019. All rights reserved. Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.
Figure 13 View of the exhibition Colour Speaks all Languages. Selected works from The Al Thani Collection © The Al Thani Collection 2024. All rights reserved. Photograph by Marc Domage
Unlike the authoritarian incandescence of red, yellow carries a symbolism tied to lustre and preciousness. The connection to gold, an absolute metaphor for heavenly and infinite light, is inevitable: many cultures have, in fact, recognized this golden glow as a manifestation of divine splendour and truth. In the Christian tradition, for example, the exhibition showcases the sacred radiance of the reliquary pendant of St. John the Baptist, a work by Parisian manufacturers from the second half of the 14th century, as well as a 17th-century statuette of St. Agnes in gilded bronze...
Figure 14 Reliquary pendant, France, Paris, 1350-1370, Gold, tooth, H. 3.7 cm, The Al Thani Collection, ATC724, © The Al Thani Collection, 2018, All rights reserved, Photographs taken by Todd White Art Photography.
Even in pre-Columbian American cultures, gold—despite its lack of mercantile value—was regarded as a sacred material, directly distilled from the sun. This is why it was used in accessories for people of high rank and incorporated into funeral and religious ceremonies.
An emblematic example is the pendant in the form of a man-bird figure from the Tairona culture in northern Colombia.
Figure 15 Owl bead, Peru, Moche, 200-600, Gold, H. 4.6 cm, The Al Thani Collection, ATC979, © The Al Thani Collection, 2018, All rights reserved, Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.
Figure 16 View of the exhibition Colour Speaks all Languages. Selected works from The Al Thani Collection © The Al Thani Collection 2024. All rights reserved. Photograph by Marc Domage
Figure 17 View of the exhibition Colour Speaks all Languages. Selected works from The Al Thani Collection © The Al Thani Collection 2024. All rights reserved. Photograph by Marc Domage
Blue, by contrast, is a colour with an ambiguous nature, steeped in both light and shadow. In modern art, this duality is evident in the contrasting views of artists like Vasilij Vasil'evič Kandinskij, who saw blue as an invitation to profound calm, the supersensible, and the infinite, and Pablo Picasso, who, during his blue (!) period, used it as a cold, melancholic, and static colour, to express the disconsolate and hopeless sadness of a derelict humanity.
Turning to the objects on display in the exhibition, the sacred nature of blue is evident in a silk dragon robe from the Qing dynasty, where it signifies membership in the imperial entourage, and in a glass-encrusted ceramic head from the Ramesside period, likely representing Amun, where blue becomes a metaphor for the sky, and consequently the divine...
Figure 18 Inlay, Egypt, New Kingdom, Ramesside, 19th-20th Dynasty, c. 1292-1070 BC, Glass, 3.8 x 4.6 cm, The Al Thani Collection, ATC1038, © The Al Thani Collection, 2019, All rights reserved, Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.
Blue is also the colour of lapis lazuli, a precious stone long associated with the benevolent powers of the gods, as seen in a Mesopotamian cup from 3000 BC on display in the room...
Figure 19 Beaker, Mesopotamia, Sumerian, c. 3000-2000 BC, Lapis lazuli, shell, 7 x 6.2 cm, The Al Thani Collection, ATC287, © The Al Thani Collection, 2019, All rights reserved, Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.
Figure 20 View of the exhibition Colour Speaks all Languages. Selected works from The Al Thani Collection © The Al Thani Collection 2024. All rights reserved. Photograph by Marc Domage
The exhibition concludes with the presence of green, evoking associations with vegetation, fertility, and regeneration. This symbolism is represented in the axe baton from New Caledonia, made of jade and coconut fibre, and used in ritual ceremonies to symbolize the union of earthly and heavenly, human and divine elements.
Figure 21 Axe baton (Nbouet, Gi okono), New Caledonia, Kanak, c. 1800, Nephrite, coir, flying fox fur, coconut shell, H. 54 cm, ATC455, © The Al Thani Collection, 2019, All rights reserved, Photography by Matt Pia.
The Olmec votive celt, crafted from jadeite, on display in the exhibition, is dedicated to the maize god, a central figure in Mesoamerican cosmogony, with maize having been first domesticated in Mexico around 7000 B.C. Thus, the choice of green is far from arbitrary...
Figure 22 Celt, Mexico, Olmec, 900-400 BC. Jadeite. 20 x 9.5 cm. The Al Thani Collection, ATC940. © The Al Thani Collection, 2018. All rights reserved. Photography by Todd White Art.
At the end of this polychrome flânerie, therefore, the visitor leaves with an enriched visual perception. Through this curated selection of refined works, set within a gallery that oozes a dark and mysterious atmosphere—almost like a prodigious Wunderkammer—the visitor is invited to experience something beyond mere observation. It opens the door to a reflection on the infinite variety and symbolic connections of colour in art, recalling the words of Kandinskij, who stated how “colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings”!
